Girls Get in the Game

The girls are seasoned tailgaters, but rarely ever game attendees. Collins had been begging to go to a game, and luckily Donna scored some great free tickets. We were in the game!

But first...tailgating of course- this time with a Halloween twist! I couldn't decide which fun Halloween dessert to make so I made three. :) The girls approved.

We had great seats on the 40-yard line, and it was the perfect day to take in a football game.

The girls did really good sitting (relatively) still for three whole quarters...

And once the sillies came out, we knew it was time to go home...

Which was a good call because State lost a close one and Dad probably needed time to cool off!

Collins Becomes a Clever Cat

Collins has been coming home after school talking a lot about "Annie Apple", "Jumping Jim" and "Harry Hat Man". At first, I had no idea what she was talking about and then I finally figured out this was how she was learning her alphabet. And it was working! She was recognizing letters everywhere and referring to them in this memorized way. It's called "Letterland" and they were learning two new letters each day. She really seemed to like learning her letters this way.

When they completed the whole alphabet, they celebrated with the kindergarten department's first ever Letterland Parade. Each kindergartner got to pick a letter to dress up as, and Collins quickly chose to be the "Clever Cat." Mimi helped her come up with a cute costume, and then we had to pick out an object to carry that started with her letter. We chose candy corn....very Collins. :)

They paraded down the kindergarten wing of school and past the parents into the gym...

where each kid had the chance to come to the microphone and say the name of the object they had brought in. Collins later told this was very embarrassing for her because she forgot to say "candy corn" and just said "candy". I said, don't worry, I would have been nervous to talk in front of all those people too!

It was really cute to see all the kindergartners parade and show off their new alphabet knowledge.

  

Our clever cat playing after school!

Church Fall Fest

Fall Fest at church was the big unveiling of the butterfly costumes for Halloween this year.

I had given Mimi and Gigi the challenging task of creating the most beautiful butterfly dresses in the world (as seen in a fancy catalog), and they were so sweet to work so hard to make it happen. Collins wanted to be a pink butterfly, and Addie wanted to be a purple one. So Donna tackled Collins' and Mimi took on Addie's. How nice is it that we not one but two seamstresses in the family?!?

And look how fabulous they turned out! The girls were thrilled and felt VERY fancy. :)

 

After a chaotic pizza dinner, it was time to get the Halloween festivities underway. Reeves and Collins were pretty aggressive in their hunt for candy both in the game area and trunk-or-treating. Collins came away with a ridiculous haul. Let the candy negotiations begin!

 

Addie came away with one purple pencil and an edible bracelet that she loved. It doesn't take as much to make her happy. :)

Our church underwent a huge renovation so this event was the first big one in the new space. It turned out great!

The girls ended up going to bed way late with a huge sugar rush. A good practice run for Halloween!

Sunday Funday

I love Sundays. They are my favorite. They have a slower pace to them, and they usually involve less chores, more fun activities, and eating a good meal.

Last Sunday is a good example of this. After church, Collins spent some down time at home "creating". She took some cardboard pieces from a box and turned them into a laptop, mouse, and headphones. Then she went to work. :) Dad and Heather had just brought us an awesome computer to use, and I think she was inspired to make her own!

We always want to spend time outside on Sundays. Brian had the good idea to go check out the new expansion of the sculpture park at the NC Museum of Art. It was really cool! It's got a big grassy open area at the top where kids can burn energy, and a new trail, and some new sculpture pieces. We will definitely want to come back and spend some more time there.

 

Once we got home, Brian started making gumbo and Collins started making "food art". She had seen this on a show she watched and made a robot out of different things out of the fridge. Pretty cool!

Sundays always go by too fast, but I look forward to them every week!

Soccer in Chapel Hill

Soccer in Chapel Hill...those are words I never expected to be used when talking about the Fork family. When we talked about going, Brian said, "You actually want me to spend a football Saturday in Chapel Hill watching a SOCCER GAME?!?" But believe it or not, he actually went for it. Let me explain why this was happening...

Collins has been taking a soccer class on Saturday mornings for a couple of months now. A bunch of friends were doing it, and we thought it would be good for her to get that "team" experience. Plus, it was something that she and Brian could go to together since I am normally the one who gets to go to all the activities.

Steve, the soccer coach, used to play soccer at Carolina so he set up for the kids to do a "walk out" at the men's soccer game. "Breakout soccer" (our team's name) got to be introduced over the loud speaker when they introduced the players, and the kids got to walk out with a member of the team. We asked Collins if she liked it, and she said "No, it was scary!" He was so tall, and it was really cold outside!

But she did have fun running around on the practice field before the game, chasing Reeves through the stands after introductions, and cheering AGAINST the Tar Heels once the game started. I give up!

I had fun being in Chapel Hill on a gorgeous Fall night, and Brian had fun leaving Chapel Hill and soccer behind.

Lacy Fall Festival

 The Lacy Fall Festival had really been hyped up by the school so Collins was pretty excited about going for the first time. A cold front had just come through so it was breezy, cool, and a pretty perfect Fall night for the spooky festival.

They had games set up in the classrooms, bounce houses in the parking lot, and things like a dunking booth in between (Collins thought it was hysterical that her PE teacher was getting dunked). The girls played some games, ate some pizza, and had their faces painted.

But what Collins really had her mind set on doing was the haunted house. When we went to go check it out, I noticed that everyone in line was older (and mostly older boys). I didn't think my anxious child would do well in the haunted house so we encouraged her to try some other things. We went back and forth with her on this and finally convinced her to do it next year. She begrudgingly headed home with us and then let her imagination do some wandering. She started imagining what was in the haunted house and completely freaked herself out! We had to talk her down from vampires, ghosts, zombies- you name it- so she could FINALLY GO TO SLEEP. So much for her not getting scared!

Hopefully, she will remember the fun she had and not the zombies when she thinks back on her first Fall Festival!

We Got a Bus!

Out with the old and in with the new! I'm so excited to say that we got a new car or "bus" as Collins calls it. We traded in the Lexus on the right for the used Suburban on the left, and I couldn't be happier about it. The Lexus that I once loved so much was in ROUGH shape and sweet Brian had been driving it for awhile (much to his chagrin). But we had figured out that once the baby comes, we would need more room than the Tahoe could offer us. So Brian started researching and shopping and next thing you know...

this was in our driveway! I get to drive this long, black bus, and am absolutely loving it. It's exactly what I wanted. And Brian is back in his Tahoe which thrills him so everybody is happy.

Except Addie- who wanted a purple car.

   

I call this new car purchase a boy's version of nesting. :)